There was a quick silence, a silence that might be felt.
“Now, Hannah!”
“I—I don’t—I don’t know—I don’t know anything.”
“Very well, Hannah. I think you may go, dear.”
Hannah left the room, her head drooping, her face crimson. When she got outside she rushed away until she came to a lonely part of the grounds, there she flung herself on the grass and burst into a tempest of bitter weeping. “Oh Peggy, Peggy, Peggy!” she moaned. “Peggy, if only I had your courage!”
The question which Hannah would only answer in the negative was now put in turn to each girl and each girl answered with more and more assurance that she knew nothing whatsoever with regard to the circumstance.
“If I could tell I would,” said Kitty, when it came to her turn. “I’ve no ill-feeling towards that girl. She wasn’t very nice to me, that I will say. Why, anybody might just take a girl off, and that was all I did, and she flew at me like a little dragon, and tried to shake the very breath out of me. She’s twice as big and strong as I am, how could I possibly hurt her? Do you suppose I kicked her until her leg was broken?”
“No, Kitty, I do not think that. You needn’t say any more, you can go—all you girls can go. But one minute. Before the rest of you leave, I wish to say that although you have spoken as you have, I do not believe you. I have no evidence to bring whatsoever to throw light on this matter; but a very important prize is to be competed for shortly in this school, and I greatly fear that until the affair of Peggy Desmond is fully brought to light I cannot allow the girls of the Lower School to compete for this most valuable prize. This is between yourselves, my dears. Now go, and God grant you all the seeing eye which cannot be neglected, the hearing ear which must listen to the truth. Farewell, children, for the present.”
CHAPTER XIII.
PEGGY GOES TO THE UPPER SCHOOL.
For several days there was nothing talked of in the school but Peggy Desmond and her serious injury. Peggy herself was so ill that for a long time the doctor was anxious about her; he said the child had received a most curious shock that he could not possibly account for, and that the shock was as bad for her as the injury to the leg. After the first week, however, Peggy slowly began to mend, and then her recovery became rapid. Her greatest pleasure at this time was to have little Elisabeth in the room—dear little innocent Elisabeth, who knew nothing, who liked to sit by Peggy’s side and rattle off her pretty little ideas for Peggy to listen to. The girl loved the child, and the child loved the girl. Molly also came constantly to see Peggy, and one day the Irish girl’s eyes brightened and almost filled with tears when Mrs. Fleming entered the room, accompanied by Mr. Wyndham. It was impossible for Peggy even to imagine how glad she would be to see Mr. Wyndham again. The colour rushed into her little face, then left it white as a sheet.